Air, waste, & remediation

PG&E is committed to reducing air emissions and waste from our facilities and operations, while also addressing impacts to the environment from our historic operations in accordance with today’s regulatory standards.

Our approach

Air emissions

PG&E operates three natural gas-fired power plants with best-in-class emissions levels. To comply with local air quality regulations, PG&E is focused on minimizing air emissions from these conventional sources of power generation.

Waste diversion at facilities and operations

PG&E strives to minimize the overall amount of waste we generate, while composting organic waste and recycling non-hazardous materials such as glass, paper, and certain metals. To support this objective, we have installed standardized landfill, recycling, and compost bins at approximately 170 locations and are partnering with janitorial contractors to comply with local ordinances for waste separation.

We work with vendors to reuse or recycle furniture and office materials no longer required for PG&E’s use. We also manage a robust program to recycle metals and other miscellaneous materials from used conductors, transformers, meters, and other equipment.

Hazardous and other waste

As part of our ordinary course of business, certain activities generate hazardous wastes. PG&E handles all hazardous waste in accordance with federal and state regulations. Our approach includes providing training and guidance to coworkers to ensure waste is properly managed from the point of generation to recycling or disposal. 

Applicable federal and state hazardous waste management statutes include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act under federal requirements and Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations and the California Health and Safety Code. California laws and regulations are generally more stringent and encompass broader waste streams than federal requirements. 

Remediation of historical impacts

We are working to address contamination resulting from PG&E and related liabilities inherited from certain predecessor companies dating as far back as the mid- to late-1800s.  Doing so is part of PG&E’s commitment to safety, environmental responsibility, and delivering for our hometowns.

For more than three decades, we have partnered with regulatory agencies, cities, and communities to implement our sustainable remediation approaches. We continue to learn, adapt, and implement the best available science and cleanup technologies to minimize community impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions. These activities, in turn, deliver health, safety, economic, and social benefits to the communities we serve. 

Engaging our community stakeholders early and often is a vital component of our efforts. Locally, we communicate with city leaders, local businesses, community groups, and residents to promote awareness, solicit feedback, and identify issues of interest with our projects. We partner on local hiring, workforce training, and local school STEM initiatives. Often our remediation efforts facilitate additional community investment, such as brownfield redevelopment, infill development, and affordable housing. 

Measuring progress

Air emissions

The following figures reflect emissions from PG&E-owned generation sources.

1. Amounts may not sum due to rounding. Additionally, there were no reportable mercury air emissions from PG&E’s facilities during 2022 to 2024.
2. Collective emission rates for Humboldt Bay, Gateway, and Colusa Generating Stations.
3. Includes all PG&E-owned generation sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear, hydroelectric, and renewable energy.

Waste diversion at facilities and operations

In 2024, we generated about 47% more solid waste compared to the prior year, and we diverted 68% of the total waste from disposal. The increase in waste generation was largely driven by general construction projects underway across the portfolio.

Moving forward, we continue to seek innovative ways to improve our waste diversion practices.

1. In 2024, the tonnage data reflects all of the non-hazardous municipal waste at office facilities and service centers for the 12 months from October to September.

Other waste reduction efforts in 2024 included:

• Recycled 60.2 million pounds of scrap iron, aluminum, copper, steel, meters, and miscellaneous material. This included 21.7 million pounds of transformers, 1.3 million pounds of recovered meters, 180,350 pounds of high-density polyethylene plastic, and 8.4 million pounds of miscellaneous materials such as glass and cardboard.  
• Recycled 378 tons of e-waste, including consumer electronic devices, CPUs, monitors, servers, printers, and other equipment. 
• Reused 390 tons of furniture and other office materials through our furniture asset re-use management warehouse. 
• Implemented a waste diversion optimization program, which consisted of training operators to effectively sort recyclable materials to increase landfill diversion rates.

Hazardous and other waste

The following table provides statistics on PG&E’s waste generation. While PG&E works to reduce hazardous waste, certain projects such as infrastructure upgrades or remediation of historical contamination may increase the amount generated in a given year.

1. Refers to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
2. Refers to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
3. These figures include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste < 50 ppm PCB.
4. Treatment includes dechlorination of PCB waste to reduce the PCB concentration. The dechlorinated oil is either incinerated or repurposed/sold (would not qualify as “recycled”). The equipment carcass is recycled. Unable to differentiate between volume incinerated versus sold, versus recycled.
5. Universal waste is comprised of seven categories: electronic devices, batteries, electric lamps, equipment with mercury, cathode ray tubes (CRT), glass from CRTs, and non-empty aerosol cans.
6. Radioactively Cleared Waste includes items such as chairs, tables, filing cabinets, and waste from non-contaminated areas that a contracted waste processing firm has surveyed and cleared for alternative disposal.

Remediation of historical impacts

We continued our progress to remediate over 40 Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) sites previously owned or operated by PG&E or ordered through inherited liabilities from predecessor companies. To date, over 30 of these sites have been successfully remediated, and the remaining sites are in progress or mobilizing in the next several years. Progress included:

• Continued to implement remediation efforts at the former Vallejo MGP, which has been designated as a critical development opportunity to activate Vallejo’s waterfront and stimulate reinvestment.
• Completed 11 months of remediation work at the former Napa MGP, which provided long-term protection of public and environmental health and supports future site redevelopment. 
• Completed demolition work of on-site buildings at the former Bakersfield MGP and worked closely with regulatory agencies to receive approval on the 2026 remediation cleanup plan. 

At the Topock Compressor Station, we completed soil removal to reduce the potential migration of contamination onto or within federal properties. This initiative is part of a California Department of Toxic Substances Control- and U.S. Department of the Interior-approved in-situ groundwater remedy designed to protect the neighboring Colorado River from historical impacts using naturally occurring microorganisms. 

At the Hinkley Compressor Station, in-situ and agricultural remediation have removed 90% of the chromium present in the groundwater through 2024. Progress included:

• Treated chromium using in-situ and agricultural treatment, which transforms the chromium into an immobile form. 
• Reduced the eight- by two-mile plume by 60% with the support of a 2023 U.S. Geological Survey study.
• Partnered with local farmers to adjust irrigation pumping patterns in the area, which addresses our chromium objectives in a sustainable way and reduces legacy nitrate pollution from historical farming and ranching. We removed 415 tons of nitrate from the local aquifer.
• Continued to optimize our treatment systems and meet critical compliance deadlines ahead of the Water Board’s cleanup and abatement order schedule, which requires 90% of designated compliance wells to reach and maintain 50 parts per billion (ppb) of chromium-6 by December 2025 and 80% of designated compliance wells to reach and maintain 10 ppb by 2032.

By incorporating sustainable practices at our remediation sites, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 480 metric tons and liquid wastes by more than 700,000 gallons in 2024. We achieved these results by:

• Incorporating heavy construction and remediation equipment to meet Tier 3 and Tier 4 federal emission standards, reflecting the cleanest standards in the industry.
• Using alternative fuels and renewable sources of energy for equipment and vehicles.
• Maximizing recycling, on-site reuse of materials, and reductions in liquid and soil wastes generated during remediation.

In addition, we recycled nearly 500 tons of offsite waste and added $11 million to the local economies near our project sites by sourcing our equipment and vendors from the community.